THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



Mitchell-Hedges, the famous explorer, big-game hunter 

 and fisherman : 



According to the London Daily Express dated 15th 

 June 1922, Mitchell-Hedges had been on an expedition 

 to South America since the previous December, and was 

 preparing to go to Panama via Kingston, Jamaica, when 

 he received news that a white girl of 15, Miss Adlin 

 Lopez, had been killed by a shark at Kingston. The 

 message begged him to stop there on his journey and 

 capture the monster. 



The child had been bathing in Kingston Harbour with 

 a little boy of five. She was standing alone, in four feet 

 of water near a small wooden pier, when she suddenly 

 shrieked ''Father ! Father ! Help me !" Her father rushed 

 to her and found that her leg had been cut oflf at the 

 thigh as though by a razor. She told him she had felt 

 no pain, "only a tickling sensation", before she fainted 

 in his arms. Next day the girl died in a nearby hospital. 



It was estimated that the pressure required to sever a 

 limb close to the body in that way, in a single snap, 

 would require a strength in the shark's jaws equivalent 

 to a pressure of one and a half tons. Mitchell-Hedges 

 made his preparations to capture the shark. He attached 

 five lines to gasoline drums and moored the drums to the 

 bottom with an iron weight. He baited the lines with 

 massive pieces of meat. 



His first attempt was quickly successful in attracting 

 the shark, showing that it had been lurking near the 

 shore, with its appetite only whetted, awaiting another 

 meal. It struck at one of the baits, and the sea around 

 was immediately thrown into a state of turbulence as the 

 shark lashed and struggled among the bobbing drums. 

 A huge crowd assembled on the beach and watched 

 the shark's efiforts to free itself of the great steel hook. 

 With a final convulsive snap it actually buckled the 

 great steel hook, tearing its barb ofif — but too late to 

 escape. 



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